Are You Smarter than a 4th Grader?

A week of substituting for 4th grade has kept me from my usual Monday post.  But it also gave me inspiration for this week's post.  It has brought me back to my early days as a sports fan.  For many 9-10 year-old boys there is nothing more important in life than sports.  One of the journal topics this week was "When I am 25..."  It would probably not surprise you to know that 80% of the boys see themselves as professional athletes at age 25.

In many ways this age is the apex of being a sports fans.  But in other ways, it represents a kind of Dark Age.  For all the joy and enthusiasm, this age can create a great deal of sports regret.  In real life it's our later teen years when we are trying to find ourselves.  We struggle with identity, and try different things.  Years later, this leads to a few regrets.  Sometimes big ones, sometimes small ones (yes, I had an earring for a year and a half in college).  As sports fans, our soul-searching happens much earlier.

On the desks of a number of kids in the class are sports logos, printed out and taped to the desk.  Of course, in Minnesota, you will see your share of Vikings logos, but I also saw some Eagles logos.  You'll see your share of Twins jerseys, but I also saw some Cavaliers jerseys.  This made me feel at happy, and at home.  Because I too wrestled with my sports identity between the ages of 9-13.  I have come to believe that this is a normal, natural part of becoming a mature sports fan.  Or at least I want to believe that it's normal and natural.  It may be that I am still trying to justify the fact that as a 13 year-old, I...how do I phrase this...ummm....I.....I wore a Yankees jersey.  There I said it.  I, a die hard Red Sox fan, once wore a Yankees jersey.

Now that that's off my chest, let's explore some of the reasons why.  Let's look at sports through the eyes of a young child.

1. You want to be like Dad (but you like mom too).  I see this one in my nephew, born in Colorado, raised in New Hampshire and Seattle, so naturally......a Minnesota Vikings fan.  Of course his dad was born and raised in Minnesota.  This, however does not keep him from wearing the occasional Bears gear, provided by his mom.  This was really difficult for me to sort out.  My dad was born in LA, my mom was born in Chicago, and I was raised in New England.  In 1990, I didn't quite grasp how silly it was that I rooted for Magic's Lakers, Michael's Bulls, and Larry's Celtics.  (In fact, my older brother had a Larry Bird sweatshirt, my twin brother had a Michael Jordan sweatshirt, and I had a Magic Johnson sweatshirt that I wore almost everyday between 2nd and 6th grade). 

2.  You want to root for the local team.  This is only natural.  It's the team you get to see on TV, or maybe live on occasion.  Many of your friends are probably rooting for them too.  For many kids, the local team is Dad's team, so two birds with one stone.  Maybe you got an autograph at a game, and one of these local guys becomes your hero.  If you make it to your late teen years rooting for either your Dad's team, or your local team, you've done pretty well for yourself.  It won't be hard to explain why you root for a specific team.  But there are other forces competing for your loyalty...

3.  You're a sucker for "cool" colors or logos.  In the early 90s most expansion teams used purple or turquoise or both in their uniforms, and I ate it up.  Red and blue were boring, purple and turquoise were........different.  I went through a huge Charlotte Hornets phase.  I regret this almost as much as my Yankees jersey (and actually this is the reason why I ended up with the jersey, I thought it looked cool).

4.  You want to cheer for a winner.  This makes a lot of sense.  At age 10, I don't think a child is old enough to understand a term like "lovable losers."  If you tell a kid they can have a soda now, or two sodas tomorrow, almost all of them will take the Coke now.  Instant gratification.  Almost all of my peers went through a phase where they rooted for Jordan's Bulls.  I know I did.  It was fun to root for the winner every year.  Hopefully though, we all grow out of this.  I can't take someone my age seriously if they are still Bulls/Cowboys/Yankees fans.

5.  You want to fit in with your friends.  One class that I subbed for this year had at least five kids who were Philadelphia Eagles fans.  Perhaps one of them had roots in Philadelphia, but the rest of them just wanted to have something in common.  Again, this is understandable, but something we grow out of. 

6.  You want to root for a team that's fun to play video games with.  Video games have evolved quite a bit since I was this age, but I can tell you it was more fun to play NBA Jam with Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning than Dee Brown and Dino Radja.

7.  You have an affinity for a certain player.  One of my good friends growing up loved Shaquille O'Neal, and was therefore an Orlando Magic fan (he actually gets a pass for this, and can continue to root for the team because as an NBA fan living in Nebraska, you can pick your team without having a good reason).  I went through this with Hakeem Olajuwon for a while.  My t-shirt jersey is a nod to my childhood sports identity crisis.

As a child, I can distinctly remember wearing hats, jackets, or shirts of the Celtics, Bulls, Lakers, Kings, Hornets, Spurs, Suns, Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Rockies, Marlins, Dodgers, Twins, Braves, Royals, Bills, Patriots, Chiefs, Giants, Seahawks, UConn, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Florida State, and that's just what I remember off the top of my head.  Some of them were gifts, some were souveniers from games I attended, some were because I liked the colors, and others were because the team was good. 

From about 14-25 I went through a time where I identified strongly with "my teams":  the Bills, the Red Sox, the Celtics, UConn basketball, Husker football.  I have to say though, on the other side of 25, I'm starting to revert to my childhood ways.  I'm not sucked in by colors, logos, or peer pressure anymore.  But I find myself wanting to root more and more for the local teams.  I've already admitted to a shifting loyalty from the Bills and the Vikings, but I've also looked at more Twins box scores in the last week than Red Sox ones.  My wardrobe features a Timberwolves shirt, a Rockets shirt, but no Celtics shirt.  I wasn't bent out of shape about UConn missing the tournament this year because it gave me a chance to root for the underdog.  Now, I'm not giving on my teams, I'm just saying, recently my interests have broadened.

All this has made me think that maybe kids are on to something.  Maybe it is fun to enjoy sports more broadly.  Maybe our loyalties are confining.  As my dad commented in an earlier post, why should a college football fan feel compelled to follow a boring football team (his example, Frank Solich's Huskers)?  Why should a Steeler fan feel compelled to root for a quarterback who can't behave himself?  Why should a Cubs fan talk themselves into the team each and every year?  Why should a Minnesotan have to root only for the teams that were his local teams when he was 12? 

In the end I think there is only one rule that should govern all sports fans:  If you're a Red Sox fan, you have no excuse for ever, ever wearing a Yankees jersey.